6mm-Minis is Maksim-Smelchak's blog to discuss gaming, miniatures, books, movies, food, Israel, Judaism, life in general and other funny crud. My favorite scale of miniatures is 6mm, which is also called 1/285 or 1/300 scale. I enjoy many different kinds of games including ancients, Napoleonics, WWI, WWII, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Car Wars AKA Autoduel (a sort of crash'n'derby automobile combat game), 6mm Godzilla AKA Kaiju games, and science fiction games. I'm open to everything though!

Monday, November 14, 2005

GAMING NEWS: Becoming a "Planetfall" PLAYTESTER...

Hi Guys,

Several folks have been asking about becoming a "Planetfall" playtester... here is what is asked of prospective playtesters...

First of all, be aware of the requirements for a playtester:- To run at least one playtest game a month or more and submit feedback and/or a battle report for your game...- To keep up with the playtest forums...- To realize that a rule set in development isn't done... it's being developed and that is a slow and steady process... you will be reviewing rough drafts and trying out an experimental game...

You may want to ask more questions about the game to make sure that you are really interested. The game might not be your cup of tea. However, if you're looking for a successor to Dirtside II or a simpler Striker game, then "Planetfall" is probably what you're looking for.

Once you're aware of that, you apply using three steps:

------

Here's HOW TO APPLY to be a "Planetfall" Playtester:

PART ONE:- Write these three simple things and either send them to me as a private E-mail or post them publicly on the "Planetfall" support group forums:

Q1. Share what you expect from a good science fiction miniatures game in written form.

Q2. State what you are expecting from "Planetfall - The Generic Universal Science Fiction Miniatures Wargame Engine" in written form.

Q3. Share a little bit about your background as a gamer and what qualifies you to be a "Planetfall" playtester.

There is no specific quantity of writing required as long as you respond to the three questions/requests: Q1, Q2 and Q3. It would help if you put your responses into the form of A1 (Answer One), A2 and A3, but I'm not requiring this. Several people have already aswered these questions to me either publicly on these forums or a number of folks privately through personal E-mails sent to me.

------

I will then read and respond to every "Planetfall" playtester application.

Successful applicants will receive a letter of congratulations and an E-mail invitation to the "Planetfall-Playtesters" E-group and have full access to all of the playtest material downloads and to the playtesting and game development discussions there.

Unsuccessful applicants will be sent an E-mail letter thanking them for their time and inviting them to reapply later.

PART TWO:- At that time, I will ask all playtesters to electronically sign a NDA (non disclosure agreement).

PART THREE:- I will then ask for a small honorarium, which every playtester will receive back as a discount of the game when it is published early next year (2006). The honorarium amount is $10.00 USD, the price of a single movie. In the case of the game not being published (Fat chance of that since I'm dedicated to this project and am investing a lot of time and money in it!), all honorariums to playtesters will be fully refunded to their owners. If the game requires more time to properly devlop, more time will be taken although the goal at this time is to publish by April 2006.